National Book Tokens have been inspiring booklovers in the UK and Ireland since 1932. An essential part of any bookseller’s product mix, our gift cards deliver on average around 2% of revenue.

We constantly refresh our range of eye-catching designs, so there truly is a gift for every reader and every occasion, while our range of flexible display options ensure that no matter how big or small your shop, National Book Tokens will fit perfectly alongside your other gifts and point-of- sale items.

You and your customers can rest assured that National Book Tokens are not only a fantastic gift to give – they’re a trustworthy one, too. Our gift cards are printed on FSC-certified board, have an 8-year expiry from last use (not to mention we replace all expired cards) and can be loaded with any value from £1/€1 to £250/€250. In recent years, we have integrated National Book Tokens into BatchLine POS and GardLink, making selling and redeeming quicker and easier.

We invest heavily in supporting high street bookshops, with significant budget behind key gifting campaigns throughout Q4, and ongoing consumer promotion throughout the year through the full marketing mix. Our consumer database holds the details of more than 400,000 avid readers and gift givers, a list which is refreshed constantly by ongoing acquisition activity, and maintained through tactics to encourage loyalty; these booklovers receive news of our competitions, reading lists and quizzes, among other engaging content – and booksellers can promote their businesses directly to subscribers living locally using our free local marketing tool.

National Book Tokens support several charities and initiatives to help encourage reading and literacy for all. We are the proud sponsor of World Book Day, the biggest annual event supporting books and reading; Read for Good, the charity that improves lives through reading with its brilliant sponsored read and hospital programme; Book Aid International, a charity that sends books around the world to communities where people do not have access to the books they need and the Jhalak Prize, and the Jhalak Childen’s & YA Prize, awards which celebrate books written by British/British resident writers of colour. National Book Tokens also sponsor the Books Are My Bag Readers Awards, the Irish Book Awards, and the Edinburgh International Book Festival.
 

 

                                                                                 

 

 

Connecting your bookshop with booklovers – for free!
 

Caboodle, the rewards programme from National Book Tokens, acts as a free local marketing tool for booksellers, enabling you to communicate your bookshop’s offers and events to thousands of booklovers, and gift card givers and recipients, near to your shop.
Easily and quickly upload offers and events – such as updates about your bookshop, online events, author signings, book clubs, free coffee, children's events, local festivals, or signed editions – to the platform, and they will appear:

• - on the National Book Tokens and Caboodle websites

 

• - on the Independent Bookshop Week or Books Are My Bag websites

 

• - in our local offer emails which are automatically sent to Caboodle members near your bookshop

 
As if that wasn’t enough, all bookshops with offers on Caboodle are in with a chance of winning the Bookshop of the Month hamper prize!

Do you have any questions, or want to know more about how to make the most of the programme? Get in touch with Agnes and Lisa at National Book Tokens.

“We try ever so hard to make our little shop as inclusive as possible and Caboodle makes it easy to reach out to a wide audience who we know love our strong women focused books and the poetry, LGBTQ+ and author events we post.”
- Diane from Wave of Nostalgia
 
“We use Caboodle to help our local customers to see what events we are running each month. Caboodle is important for us as we have a lot of followers on social media, but unless we pay for localised ads it means that it is difficult to target local customers and visitors. As Brighton is a tourist destination it also helps us as we have a lot of people who come to our events that are visiting for a short period and they can get the information on Caboodle.”
- Carolynn from Afrori Books
 
“As soon as we opened the bookshop in September, a customer asked us if we were using Caboodle. We had so much to do with setting up the shop, but we knew it would be important to get on to Caboodle as soon as possible. We've had 12 events now and Caboodle has been a big part of building up our audience numbers.”
- Catherine and Claire from The Heath Bookshop
 
“I love using Caboodle to let people know what new signed copies have just come in or our events. We had Max Boyce and Nigel Owens here last year which I wanted to share with as many people as possible! Caboodle is a free and easy way to communicate anything to booklovers, whatever your shop is doing.”
- Bethan and Marley from Victoria Bookshop